APU's Rural Alaska Native Adult program is featured in the June 2008 Alaska Business Monthly article entitled "Online Education" written by Heidi Bohi.  To read the full text of the story, click on the link below.

Online Education

Michael Loso was one of 15 people who recently delivered a petition to the Anchorage office of Senator Murkowski. The petition asks the senator to support legislation regulating and capping U.S. carbon emissions. See the KTUU story.

Nine human senses or ten? Read Carl's response here.

Catherine Miller, a nurse and a DCP graduate, founded Children of the World. Part of the mission of the organization is to care for and house 46 children orphaned because of the aids epidemic in Africa.

Read the Anchorage Daily News story on Catherine and Children of the World

APU ski coach Holly Brooks won the May 20 Turnagain Arm Trail Run by beating Gretchen Flora, the wife of APU Nordic Ski Center director Erik Flora. To read the May 21 Anchorage Daily News story, click on the link below.

New Blood Bests Field - Anchorage Daily News

The Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center, under the leadership of the USSA's Domestic Coach of the Year Erik Flora (Anchorage) was recognized as the USSA Cross Country Club of the Year. APU, which has operated a training center for cross country skiers for ten years, has worked on training and developing some of the nations most talented nordic skiers. The first female World Cup winner in U.S. history Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK) is among the Olympians, national champions, Europa Cup winners and U23 medalists to call APU their club. -- From the Nordic Ski Racer website, nordicskiracer.com

APU Professor Roman Dial is featured in the recent Discovery Channel special "Expedition Alaska."  The program features Dr. Dial and other scientists talking about climate change in Alaska.  During the program, Dr. Dial is seen sea kayaking, flying in an ultralight, and packrafting.  The program, which also aired earlier this month, will be repeated on May 1 at 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.  Be sure to tune in! 

The April 15 APRN Talk of Alaska call in program featured Alaska Pacific University's Engaging Muslims project coordinator - Dr. Regina Boisclair - who chatted about the project and about issues related to the interaction of America and the Islamic world.

Topics include why APU wanted to develop the project and its goals, Islamic concepts (including jihad) and issues of religious extremism and terrorism.

 To listen to the podcast, please click on the link below.

Talk of Alaska - Engaging Muslims

ADN.com, the website of the Anchorage Daily News features a blog called the AKrootceller blog written by APU graduate Kim Sollien.  To read her submission "weighing the global carrot vs. the global organic carrot" please click on the link below.

AKrootceller

Popular Science magazine has rated Anchorage one of the 50 greenest cities in America. In its February edition, Anchorage was highlighted for its innovative plan to replace all its street lights with energy-efficient Light Emitting Dioide (LED) and induction lights. The project is not only green but will save taxpayers millions of dollars a year when fully implemented. Over the last three years, Mayor Begich has launched a number of high-profile sustainability efforts including hosting the first U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Change Summit, retrofitting City Hall building for energy savings, and establishing cardboard recycling collection centers to assist local businesses. For the full story, see:

Popular science

James Southam, an APU graduate and member of the APU Nordic Ski Team, won the men's 50K race in the Tour of Anchorage on Sunday, March 2.  APU Nordic ski coach Holly Brooks beat out two APU skiers to win the 50K women's race.  APU had several top 10 finishers in both the women's and men's divisions. For all of the details, see the Monday, March 3 Anchorage Daily News article -- "Southam on top at home".

 Southam on top at home

APU environmental science student Chet Fehrmann won the Susitna 100 on February 17 by skiing the 100 mile race in 20 hours -- even surpassing the racers on bikes.

 For complete details, see the Feb. 18 Anchorage Daily News article by clicking here.

APU graduates Katrina Timm and Alissa McMahon (who recently graduated from the Masters of Science in Environmental Science program) have been recognized in an article in "Alaska Report" for their research on receeding tree lines on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula.   

The article summarizes the students' report published in the "Journal of Geophysical Research" in late December 2007 -- Changes in the alpine forest-tundra ecotone commensurate with recent warming in southcentral Alaska: Evidence from orthophotos and field plots.

APU student and skier Kikkan Randall won another national championship Saturday by winning the 5k freestyle sprint at the US National Nordic Ski Championships in Houghton, Michigan. Kikkan won the race after falling early on and then recovering to power through to a 1.52-second win in the heat. APU's Laura Valaas placed second.

 All in all, APU athletes had a great showing at the week-long championships, winning a total of 8 medals, including three golds -- two won by Kikkan, and the other by Lars Flora. 

For more information, some great articles, and video interviews with Kikkan Randall and Laura Valaas, click on the links below.

Anchorage Daily News January 5

FasterSkier January 5

FasterSkier interviews

Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center skiers prove they are the best once again -- this time with multiple pdoium finishes at the US Cross Country Ski Championships this week in Houghton, Michigan. 

Kikkan Randall and Lars Flora both won national titles -- the seventh for Randall and fourth for Flora overall. Kikkan placed first in the women's 10K classic race and Lars won the mens 15K championship. Earlier in the week, APU student Tazlina Mannix placed third in the 5K skate.

For more details and photos, and to see this week's Anchorage Daily News story, click on the link below.

 Randall and Flora win US titles

In a groundbreaking victory in a sport long dominated by Europeans and Russians, APU's Kikkan Randall became the first American woman to win a World Cup cross-country ski race by beating out some of the world's best skiers in Sunday's 1.2 km sprint race in Rybinsk, Russia.  As a result of her victory Kikkan is featured in several local, national and international printed and internet publications.  To read the stories and see the photos, click on the links below.  Congratulations Kikkan!

Group: Emily Miner, Ari McGee-Vermont, Sara Perman, Alex Ronchetti, Megan Davis

Constitution Week

Final Project

We aim to teach the general student public of APU about the United States constitution. This lesson will be presented in two stages.  It is imperative that students learn the basics about the constitution, so this lesson has been set up to accommodate both the foundations and the principles. 

Stage 1 will be about the foundations of the constitution.  These include ties to Ancient Greece, English parliament, and philosophers such as Hobbes and Locke during the enlightenment period.  It will also include the founding fathers debates about forming the constitution, as well as more recent application of the bill of rights such as the Civil Rights movements.  This portion of the presentation will be made in PowerPoint form as a lecture.

Stage two of the constitution presentation will use a different to reach out to students.  A handout of the Bill of Rights will be passed around the room, and a seminar about the amendments will ensue.  We would like to bring this portion of the presentation to modern day and discuss opinions and concerns about the Bill of Rights. For instance, a discussion about the second Amendment- the right to bare arms- could potentially be a thought provoking discussion of the Bill of Rights relating to modern day issues.

We plan to spend roughly 10-15 minutes on the PowerPoint presentation and another 20-25 minutes in discussion depending on the amount of discussion. We plan on wrapping up the presentation with a 5-10 minute speech on the Critical Thinking thought process we have put into the presentation.  We would like to mention the use of both didactic and dialectic teaching methods, as well as the effectiveness of discussing and arguing throughout the seminar portion.